It is safe to say that the outdoors and a clean, healthy environment are absolutely intrinsic to our identity in Southwest Colorado and the state as a whole. It’s one of the biggest reasons why I love living, working and playing in this part of the country.
And it’s not just me. In fact, a recent story in The Denver Post highlighted Colorado’s burgeoning outdoor recreation economy, finding that “Coloradans play outside exponentially more than the rest of the country.” The numbers are astounding. Fifty-two percent of Coloradans hike, for example, compared with just 11 percent of the rest of the country. A full 36 percent of us go fishing, versus 13 percent of the U.S., and 34 percent of us ski or snowboard compared with 3 percent of the nation.
The love of the outdoors and zeal to protect what makes this state so spectacular is a key reason why my organization, Conservation Colorado, exists. Our history is long-standing: Before reorganizing as Conservation Colorado in 2013, we were two separate groups, the Colorado Environmental Coalition (formed in the mid-1960s) and Colorado Conservation Voters (formed in 2000). The two groups decided to combine their collective policy, advocacy, organizing and political chops by merging. We have grown to have nearly 15,000 members who work together to protect our national parks and landscapes, clean up our rivers and ensure that our air is safe to breathe.
One of the hallmarks of our work is our annual “Colorado Legislative Conservation Scorecard,” which rates all 100 state legislators on how they vote on the key environmental issues at the state Capitol. Our members believe that votes in the Legislature translate into real impacts for communities, which is why our scorecard has become such a trusted source of information.
We just released our 18th annual scorecard, which this year assessed 17 bills that together tell the story of what happened at the Capitol on energy, environmental, recreation and public health issues.
When I looked at this year’s scorecard, I was disappointed to see the scores of our local state legislators. Sen. Ellen Roberts came in at 27 percent, Rep. J. Paul Brown had 33 percent and Rep. Don Coram had 33 percent.
I’ll give some credit where it is due: All three members voted to legalize rain barrels, be the first state to establish a public lands holiday and cut red tape for getting tax credits for owning an electric vehicle. Roberts in particular played a key role in getting the rain barrel bill passed.
But they also failed to uphold and embody our community’s environmental values on many other bills. For example, all of our legislators from Southwest Colorado tried to put us on the path to selling off our national public lands, while Brown and Coram also voted against increased water sharing flexibility and stood against local communities having the right to say where industrial gas and oil drilling occurs.
Perhaps most egregious were their statements about climate change and air pollution. Brown and Coram went so far as to deny that climate change is real and that it is causing warmer winters and more destructive wildfires. Brown said that he “questions” whether climate change is man-made, while Coram claimed that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that climate change is slowing down (despite NOAA itself issuing a report to the contrary.)
Further, all three of them voted to block key funding for state programs that protect our air quality, including those to curb methane emissions.
Colorado faces incredibly challenging conservation and environmental issues, and we need ideas and leaders from both sides of the aisle to help us solve them. That’s why in years past we have been pleased to endorse both Democrats and Republicans.
Take Roberts for example, whom we endorsed for re-election as recently as 2014.
We need every leader from Southwest Colorado to vote to keep our rivers raging, our skies blue and our lands open to everyone. These are our values, and we need legislators from the Southwest who uphold them.
Micha Rosenoer lives in Durango and is the West Slope field manager for Conservation Colorado. Reach her at michal@conservationco.org. View the Conservation Scorecard at scorecard.conservationco.org.
